…and Other Unlikely Places

The Problem with Hollywood Screenwriting

“[Screenwriting] was a chore [mostly] because you’ve got several bosses. You’re not just writing for yourself. I write for myself. I’m the only one I have to please. When I have to please a producer and a director and so on, then I’m just taking in writing, doing what they want me to do.

There was a time when I had to do it, ‘cuz I needed the money. I wasn’t very proud of the pictures, but it was just something I had to do. There was no way to talk [executives] into anything. You’d have a story conference on a Friday afternoon, and they’d give all this stuff, all their ideas, [and] you’d go back to your hotel room, sit there looking at the wall and writing it, and then Monday you’d meet ‘em again, and they’d forgotten all the bullshit they’d told you Friday.”
Elmore LeonardWGA, West article Always Writing by Dylan Callaghan

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“I despise outlines…I don’t do outlines, but I do notes. I do a lot of notes. It’s more like stream of consciousness. It might be about the characters. Sometimes I interview the characters on paper.” Screenwriter Jim Uhls The Dialogue interview with Mike De Luca “Truman Capote has a natural gift that makes him a great […]